Bulgaria's Unemployment Expected to Stop Rising

Experts from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) expect that in 2014 the unemployment in the country will stop rising, and might even decrease.

The annual report of the BAS on unemployment and inequality trends in Bulgaria found, that the employment rate would rise very slightly in 2014 and will entirely depend on the growth of the GDP.

In the next two years experts expect the creation of 100 000 new jobs – around one quarter of the jobs lost during the economic downturn.

According to the report, the business is careful in opening new jobs because of the unstable and unpredictable economic environment and for this reason the economic growth, however weak, does not transform into new jobs.

Stoyan Totev of the BAS Institute for economic studies said Bulgaria has the lowest economic development in the EU and has largest regional differences.

The BAS data shows, that in the last 10 years the differences among the regions increased by 44%, mostly driven by demographic and migration processes. Experts expect this trend to continue.

At the same time, the BAS study found that in the past several years between 1.3 and 1.7 M Bulgarians live in poverty and every fourth resident are destitute.

The groups at higher risk of poverty and destitution are the children, the elderly, those of low education and the households of one person with dependent children.